Amy Currioman

Don’t you just love the Internet?  I sure do!  The Internet makes it so much easier to find and buy most of the things you need from the comfort of your own home.  Although I think it is very important to support local businesses, I also think it is wonderful that you can use the Internet if the local businesses don’t happen to sell what you need, or if they charge exorbitant prices for their products.  We, the consumers, are no longer held hostage by the prices set by our local stores!  Competition has grown from a rivalry between the two hardware stores in town to all of the hardware store websites in the world that have joined the technologically savvy. 

I am frequently surprised by the wide variety of products that are offered by one single company.  For example, the e-tradecounter.co.uk website sells just about everything electrical that you could possibly need for a home or business.  Their products range from air conditioning equipment to home lighting to catering equipment.  I was intrigued to find that they sell electric showers where you set a thermostat for the temperature that you want your shower to be and that’s what you got!  I’ve never seen anything like that before!  I’d LOVE to have that instead of the standard faucet I have where you simply fiddle with turning the knob one way or the other until you get what feels comfortable.

One interesting item I found on their website was a Thermo heat guard – a curved fixture that fits over heating tubes to protect youngsters and elderly from getting hurt.  I saw that they also sold Thermo heating tubes.  I had never seen or heard of a heating tube before.  I found it very interesting because I am the step-daughter of a man who made his living in the heating and plumbing business.  I thought I had seen it all!

Sometimes I think I am too empathetic. My hubby got his cast off of his arm yesterday, and today he told me that I need to help him with his physical therapy. So I was helping him with his exercises, and it bothered me tremendously because I could see that he was fighting back tears and gasping with pain. I think that may be one of the hardest things to do in life; watching someone you care about being in pain and being helpless to stop the pain.

You have to do it yourself. How true that is! Sometimes I get frustrated because I need some help around the house from time to time. Things like loading/unloading the dishwasher, or doing the laundry. I know I’ve spent countless hours demonstrating and teaching the men in the house how to do these things right. Trust me when I say I’m not being anal; if the dishwasher isn’t loaded correctly dishes come out dirty, or come out broken. If the laundry isn’t done right then I have clothes that are ruined – either from colors running together or from zippers and hooks snagging delicate fabrics. If I gently remind them that they need to be done “properly” I get a lot of negative feedback – like “if you want me to do it, then you have to be happy with the way I do it.” And then I reply “If you aren’t going to do it right, please just don’t do it at all.” And then they do it anyway – the wrong way! Very frustrating. I really do wish that if they were not going to do it right that they just leave it undone. I get tired of broken dishes and ruined clothing!

I used to think that my family was very anti-psychic.  My step-father used to tell me that his grandmother raised him and that she was a scammer that pretended to be a fortune teller and took people for lots of money.  He made it sound as if the entire topic was taboo in our household.  So it has surprised me from time to time when I hear that someone in the family has gone to get their fortunes told.  I always am interested to hear how they felt about the reading that they got.  My hubby and I have been talking about going to have our fortunes told sometime soon, but we have had a hard time finding time to go together.

My sister just told me that she heard that there is a fortune teller named Ann Brook that specializes in love psychic reading.  Her daughter was thinking about going to see a love fortune teller to get a love tarot reading to see what the psychic might have to say about the long term chances of her relationship with her boyfriend.  She’s been wondering if they were ever going to settle down and get married and have a family.  I had never heard of a psychic who specializes in that area; I’ve always thought that psychics were more generalized than that!  So it will be interesting to hear what she has to say on the subject!

My friend Jean was given a lot of craft supplies that she decided that she can’t use. So she brought them all over to my house! Bags and bags of fabric, trims, batting. Huge rolls of fabrics too! I don’t know when I’ll get the time to check them all out! It’s going to be interesting; there is no doubt about that! I’ll have to look at it like I’m treasure hunting! Now I’m afraid to go shopping for craft supplies, though – for fear I already have some in the mystery bags!